Arts Midwest World Fest Study Guide

Unni Boksasp Ensemble from NORWAY

About the Artists Unni Boksasp is a warm and imaginative singer who draws you easily into the heart of Norway. Over the years, Unni has delved into the deep traditions found across her homeland, studying music and dance with renowned singers and folk arts departments in Norway and Sweden. With their knowledge and love for this music, Unni’s ensemble builds their own musical world, where lopsided rhythms, unusual scales, and creative instrumentation capture audiences far beyond the Norwegian border. The musicians of the ensemble are all hand- selected and highly qualified performers and educators, grounding themselves in tradition while inventing new approaches to their instruments. Her fresh arrangements of folk songs and original compositions Photo courtesy of Unni Boksasp Ensemble. have earned wide acclaim: she was a Norwegian national champion of traditional singing in 2010 and 2011 and won a Norwegian Grammy Award and Norwegian Folk Music Award for her 2010 album, Karamello. Norwegian Folk Music Members Norway is home to a rich tradition of folk music that has been Unni Boksasp Voice aurally passed down from generation to generation over the past Guro Kvifte Nesheim Fiddle seven centuries. Before c. 1840, however, there were few sources for Gjermund Silset Bass Guitar documenting music and dance in Norway, which inspired a systematic collecting of folk art. At first the focus was on collecting religious folk Kenneth Ekornes Percussion music, but soon many other types began to be documented such as Fridtjof Lindeman Sound Engineer epic ballads and songs about trolls and fairy tale creatures. These were mostly sung as entertainment, whereas others, such as soothing lullabies and cattle calls, had specific functions in everyday life. Some of the vocal music (called kveding, where kvede means ‘sing’) that was collected during this time was meant for dancing. Dancing is a major component to Norwegian folk music, and informs almost all types of Norwegian instrumental music. A dancing tune is called a slått, which stems from the verb slå, meaning “to beat”; the slåtts are “beaten” from the instrument. Traditional instruments such as the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle) accompany these two- or three-beat partner dances. Because of Norway’s mountains, valleys, and fjords, dances and songs were often different from region to region, allowing for many distinct “flavors” of Norwegian folk music. Nowadays, Norwegian folk musicians eagerly blend Western styles of music such as rock, pop, and jazz with other world traditions, pushing the boundaries of what is possible within the world of folk music. Videos Check out a video of a Norwegian Folk Dance at the Olso Museum of Culture: https://youtu.be/gabJ4zE7Uz4 Check out a live performance of the Unni Boksasp Ensemble: https://youtu.be/sY35Ko9uftI

Learn more at www.artsmidwestworldfest.org Arts Midwest World Fest Study Guide

Unni Boksasp Ensemble from NORWAY

A zither is an instrument whose CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 CC BY-NC-SA

. strings stretch across a flat resonant body. Unlike a guitar or ukulele, a zither

MagneG does not have a neck that extends from the body. Instead, the fret board is either Photo by Isolde Jordan. Photo by included on the body itself or is omitted. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

The hardingfele, or Hardanger fiddle, looks like and is played like an ordinary violin, but has four to five sympathetic strings

underneath the fingerboard that Photo by Eihpossophie. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 resonate softly when the upper The Appalachian dulcimer is a type of zither from the Appalacian strings are bowed. This creates Mountains in North America whose grandmother is the Norwegian a full and warm hum effect when langeleik. This kind of dulcimer typically has three or four strings that are played. plucked while the instrument rests on the lap of the musician.

Ask the musicians! Where do the stories in your songs come from?

A lokk (‘call’) is a herding song, a song or shout used to call in the farm animals, such as sheep, goats, and cattle. Laling is a song or shout used to make contact with other people, such as another herder some distance away. Laling gets its name for the syllable “la” that is used repeatedly when sung. Check out the video to the left: https://youtu.be/KvtT3UyhibQ

Ask the musicians! What languages do you CC BY-NC 2.0 CC BY-NC . speak? Ali Eminov Photo by Norway is home to many types of traditional folk dances. Some include: Halling: an athletic solo dance performed traditionally by young men Ganger (or rull): a two-beat social dance This work is licensed under a Springar (or springleik): a three-beat social dance Creative Commons Attributi on-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 U nport ed License. Learn more at www.artsmidwestworldfest.org